In German, there's the saying "Alles neu macht der Mai" - May makes everything new. Coincidentally, there's a few new things afoot here...

Thing One: Recycling Spindle Whorls! Medieval spindle whorls came in oh so many shapes, forms, sizes and materials... and one of the types was disc-shaped whorls made from broken pottery. This has been on my list for a while now, but finally I've gotten around to getting the tools and the broken pottery to try making them.



These are cut using modern tools, and the material is modern broken pottery. In the best-case scenario, I'll be able to get some potsherds from replica pots in the future... but for now, I think these will do nicely. They weigh somewhere between 11 and 19 g, depending on which pot they came from, and which part of the pot... and I confess that I'm utterly delighted by those.

They have been tested first thing, of course:



I find them a bit too light for starting off an empty spindle, but then I am fond of using heavy whorls for that. They do run beautifully on a half-filled spindle, though!

I'll be making a few more the next days, and then they will find their way into the shop as well.

Thing Two: I've finally decided to take the plunge and try online teaching. I've done in-person courses only up to now, and I do think it's so, so helpful to be able to touch and feel things and not just see them, but with the pandemic going on and on, I'm starting to think that half the deal is better than nothing. So now I'm planning an online spinning course... I am still trying to figure out a few details, but it will be about 2 hours, showing how to spin with hand-spindle and distaff. My biggest question at the moment is how to make sure that every participant has suitable tools and materials - in my in-person courses, I just bring a bunch of distaffs and a pile of spindle whorls so everyone can pick one to use during the course, and then either buy afterwards or toss them back to me. That is not so easy when teaching over distance, of course. Unfortunately, many modern spindles will have rotational properties that don't work well with the distaff spinning style. So... do I send out kits as part of the course? Or do I just offer them as an option, with the possible danger of someone participating with entirely unsuitable tools?

If you're interested in a spinning course, feel free to drop me an email, or comment here - and once I've figured out the rest of the open questions, you will also be able to find info in the shop in the workshops/courses section.

To my unending delight, I've received a message yesterday evening... the travelling merchants have been found!

A friend hunted them down for me, with help of the search engine "ecosia": she found an image in the same style, searched for the name connected with it (Girart de Roussillon), landed on pinterest and found the image with a link to the manuscript there. Thank you so much!

It's Codex 2549 in the Austrian National Library, and it's available as a digital image. See it in all its glory here. According to the explanation, it shows Girart, his wife, and two companions, together with two pack animals. Seems it's not a merchant after all, that guy - he was a count, instead. The original person lived in the 9th century, but became star of a chanson de geste later in the Middle Ages - the Roman de Girart de Roussillon.

So... what do we learn from this?

A: Search engines are not all alike, nor are the methods of the people using them.
B: It never hurts to ask for help. I should do more of that.
C: Illuminations stand in context with the text, and it's really a smart idea to check that context. It does make a difference whether it's a travelling count or whether it's merchants... so I'd like to find out more about that. (Which means deciphering the text on the page, and deciphering the Old French, so probably nothing that will be done just now. But hooray, now I can!)

There's not only new spindle whorls in the shop, there's also new wool - from a rare sheep breed.

The Manx Loaghan sheep is a small, hardy breed that can be found on the Isle of Man. The sheep are a four-horned breed; some of them even have six horns. You can read a bit more about it on the Wikipedia page, with links there for more.

It's mostly kept for its meat, but the wool is also really beautiful: a warm, brown colour that reminds me of honeydew or chestnut honey.



The wool arrived just in time to make it into the shop in time for the March newsletter... which will go out tomorrow in the English version, and has been sent already in the German version. Hooray!

 

One of the things I've learned running my own business: Nobody Tells You Things.

I always thought that information about things changing that would affect a shop or business would be coming to said shops and businesses. Say, for instance, that there's a change in VAT rate - the tax you have to charge for every sale.

If you have a business in Germany, you're listed and registered. At the very least, your home town has your registration as a business. You might also be registered in some other institutions or thingummies, but let's leave that aside - one registration, which is in your town and thus an official state registration, that's enough.

So in theory, since you are registered and the state should sort of have an interest in having you comply with rules and regulations... I'd have expected some letter or email or notice about that change in VAT rules to come to each business. Not necessarily a long explanation or precise instructions, mind. Just something like a heads-up, as in "there'll be a change, please check if that applies to your business and inform yourself".

Just in case you're also in the Fluffy Bunny Wonderland of Imagination and Incredible Optimism, like I was about this once upon a time, let me burst your bubble: This is not so. Nobody official from the town, or from the state, or from the EU, or from any other stately place, ever tells you anything about upcoming rules or changes. Ever. EVER. You have to miraculously find out about things yourself... or fail to do so, and then maybe eventually fail to comply with rules. The most you can hope for then is an admonishment if your failure to comply comes out somehow, and maybe you'll have to pay a fine then, too.

The long-time readers of you will remember the issue with VAT-MOSS (or VAT-MESS) some 5 years back, when VAT rules for digital goods sales across borders were changed, and caught a lot of vendors unaware. Back then, already, it was hinted that similar rules should be introduced for physical goods as well. This is now going to happen; it was planned to start in January 2021, but has been postponed to July because of the pandemic. I accidentally learned about that this morning... which meant I spent half the morning reading up on stuff to find out what I'll have to do come July.

The good news is: looks like I'll have to do exactly... nothing. My business, and thus my export volume, is small enough to fall under the annual export threshold, which, thank goodness, has been set into place right from the start (as opposed to when the digital sales VAT changed). As a side effect, I've also found out that a similar threshold has been put into place for sales of digital goods, which is fantastic as I'll be able to sell digital instructions and knitting patterns from my shop again. (That threshold introduction happened at sometime back between 2015 and now, and I totally missed it.)

So. Phew. A burst of adrenaline, and then good news - that's an okay outcome of this. And I confess, should you now all conspire to order so many things outside of Germany but within the EU to lift me over the threshold, I'd be totally cool to register for the One-Stop-Shop for my taxes and do the fancy changes to the shop system that would be necessary. (If you want to know, it would mean to look up the tax rates for each of the 27 member states and what they apply to, as books and other printed goods are sometimes taxed with a reduced rate and sometimes not at all, then enter those taxes in the shop system accordingly for each country. Then test all that to make sure it functions properly. That is probably a workday, if it's going badly, more.)

After this little intermezzo... I can now tackle my overly long list of things again. Hooray!

I've been doing a bit of evening playing around research stuff recently - a colleague has sent me some images from braided bands attached to relic purses, and we're trying to figure out how these were done.

Loop-braiding remains absolutely and utterly fascinating for me. The ease with which it is possible to do complex braids, with different patterns; the mindboggling efficiency of this technique, compared to braiding with single ends; the possibility to have several braiders work together on one piece, making it wider and more complex - it's just wonderful.

I have also, in the tests and trials for these technique reconstructions, found out again that sometimes the simple approach is the one most likely to be the right one. There was a good amount of pottering around with just five loops for the first puzzle, moving them from one finger to another, until I finally realised that it was just a very simple braid which I have done gazillions of times before... that was a nice d'oh moment. I was smarter for the next one, though!

So here's two pictures of the current puzzle in progress, braided with seven loops:

They show front and back of the band; one of the loops is a bicolour one (grey and dark blue) to make things more clear for me when testing the effect of twisting the loop vs. taking it straight. It also shows how one single loop/element travels through the whole braid.

Can you tell I'm having fun with this?

You probably know that - you're looking at some newsfeed or something on the internet, and suddenly something really cool and exciting pops up. That is just what happened to me, leading to my finding out about the Bayeux Tapestry online.

In a project to make the embroidery more accessible and digitally available, the whole 70 metres have been photographed and then pieced together into a large panorama - which is now freely accessible online. So you can have a look at whatever piece you want to, and even zoom in quite a bit. Here's the museum's info and intro page to the Online Tapestry.

I've spent some time already squinting at the stitches in different parts. Of course, I immediately had an Oliver Twist moment when clicking on the zoom-in button, when I would really have liked to have just one more... but didn't get it. Still, it's wonderful, and probably allows a closer look than going to visit the original piece!

After feeling like it was Friday all day yesterday, I'm certainly happy that it's the end of the week for real today. I'm also quite happy that there has been some taking stock, scheming, and planning for restocking my embroidery silk collection, and adding a few new colours.

The red and yellow are almost gone, the purple has been sold out for a while, and I'm planning to add a proper black as well as another shade of green to complement the blueish green and the apple green already in the range. The light blue is also running low... and now I'm wondering if I have missed something?

And while I'm getting things dyed, maybe also some lace braids? And a bit of the silk ribbon? Hmmm...

(Suggestions and thoughts - as always - are very welcome!)